Comments on: RESOLVED: Presidential Debates are an Insult to Our Collective Intelligence and Must Be Reformed

By: Lindsay Beyerstein

Lindsay Beyerstein — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:59:18 +0000

The Commission on Presidential Debates needs to get a spine.

Here’s my modest proposal: The Commission is supposed to be a non-profit public service organization, not purely a joint promotional apparatus for the two major parties. Either the Commission gets tough with the candidates, or it loses its tax exemption.

By: BargainCountertenor

BargainCountertenor — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:49:41 +0000

What we have now are joint press conferences, not debates. Debates have formal structures, and require the participants to address each other.

McCain would never agree to a real debate with Obama for several reasons:

1. McCain’s grasp of the facts isn’t as good as Obama’s.
2. Despite his protestations, McCain has changed his position on a number of critical issues. He’s vulnerable to impeachment in that regard, especially because he believes he’s never made a mistake.
3. McCain has known problems with self-control. While I’d like to see a total meltdown on national television, it wouldn’t be good for McCain in any way.
4. McCain is very fuzzy on anything that isn’t military policy. Truthfully, he’s fuzzy on that too. But a debate about economics would be unbearable.

By: lokywoky

lokywoky — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Right on! I would have liked to have the entire focus of this debate on just the ramifications of the Wall Street Bailout. That would be the topic, and the two candidates would have the whole 90 minutes to explain what their positions were. I’d give them each 10 minutes to state their positions, and then open it up to audience questions – and let the audience decide when they have actually addressed the questions. Both of them avoided directly answering many of them and of course, no follow-up.